Lessons from the carpet soukes of Morocco

There’s no really new sales technique. That was the lesson I learnt when I explored the carpet soukes of Morocco. The AIDA sales sequence, closing techniques, spotting the buying signals.. they have all been in place for hundreds of years!

It was our first visit to Taroudante, in Morocco, and that must have been clear to the hotel touts on mopeds as they accompanied us as we drove through the narrow streets, shouting the names of “the best ‘otel in town, M’sieu”. Wrong targeting – we’d already settled on staying at the old and rather tatty French-colonial style hotel in the town square.

After unpacking, we sipped mint tea in the hotel cafe, fending off a stream of ‘guides’ – “No fee, M’sieu, I am a student wanting to improve my English”. Eventually and inevitably, we succumbed to an older ‘guide’ “I’m a farmer on my day off – I like showing people round our lovely town – no fee” – thinking correctly that at least he’d have the experience to keep the younger touts at bay.

“No carpets, Mohammed”

We made our intentions clear. “No carpets, Mohammed”, (what else would he have been called) – “Definitely no carpets!”. “No, M’sieu”, he replied, as he steered us in the general direction of the souke – the town market. A few stalls later, having accepted some free gifts – and some other gifts, which turned out not to be free – we ended up outside the inevitable carpet warehouse.

“We said ‘no carpets’, Mohammed”, said Ruth. “Non, non, M’selle, no carpets, this a fren’ of mine. He ask me take tea with him when I visit Taroudante. You are my guests”. “Right”, I thought, “Now I understand the ground rules, I can learn first-hand about Arabic sales techniques.” In Internet marketing terms, this is what we call an ‘Associate’ or ‘Referrer’ program.

A captive audience

We went inside and I settled back to enjoy the sales show. And what a skilful show it was! The mint tea arrived; Mohammed’s ‘fren’, Abdul (I think it was), was a good host. He only spoke a little in Arabic to Mohammed (probably confirming his commission rate), and then launched into an enthusiastic, and reasonable coherent description of traditional carpet making techniques. “OK”, I thought, “we’re into the first phase of the ‘AIDA’ sales sequence – Attention. He’s got that – and, because of the mint tea offering, we’re a captive audience”.

The next phase of AIDA – Interest – flowed smoothly on. Web site terms? – give plenty of free information. Abdul showed us some historical carpets “Not for sale”, and demonstrated how the stitching and backing were carefully constructed for long life – and how that tradition had been retained in good-quality modern Arabic carpets (“Not the rubbish we would have seen in the ‘open’ souke”).

“Here comes phase three of AIDA”, I thought, “Build the Desire for the product”. I was not wrong (clever knowall that I am). “Think of your own living room”, said Abdul, “and picture one of these carpets there. Which colour would look best in it – a pink, p’raps or maybe a green. Can you see one of these beautiful carpets there?”. “Ah!”, I thought, “get the prospect to build a ‘word picture’ in their minds. Nice one, Abdul, you don’t know what we want, so get us to describe it”. Ruth went for it. “Maybe a green”, she said. Out came a small selection of beautiful green-based carpets – and yet more mint tea. We were still captured!

“No problem, m’sieu”

Phase four of AIDA, the call to Action was carefully delayed as Abdul went into his objection pre-handling routine. Using what seemed to be mind reading, but was obviously based on what many previous prospects had raised as a prime objection, Abdul showed us how a carpet could be folded into a very small package, easily handled by tourists. “No problem, m’sieu!”

Finally, came the crunch – and the disappointment for Abdul. Skilfully, he tried to close the sale, when he drew Ruth’s attention back to the small selection of green carpets. Carefully he selected a mid-priced one (he’d guessed our price range), and folded that carefully into a small package, then unfolded it again to show to Ruth. “It will look pretty in your living room, yes?”, he said, trying to lead the prospect to give a positive answer. After all, she could hardly say “No it won’t”. Then he turned to me and mentioned a price, expecting me to start the process of haggling – the call to Action.

And at this point, I put my foot down and after some small courtesies, we left. No sale for Abdul on this occasion, because he’d not appreciated that my main reason for staying so long was to see him at work! Mind you, Mohammed didn’t entirely lose out, because he had more than one ‘associate program’ in place. Before we knew what had happened, we were in the studio of a sculptor, and I let myself be sold an attractive statue at what was, after some haggling, a mutually agreeable price!

And the moral of this traveller’s tale? “There’s nothing new under the sun!” What works in the soukes of Morocco works, with modification, over the Internet, and in high-tech face-to-face selling in our high-pressure competitive world. Why? Because we are still dealing with people

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done Callin the coroner come collect the fuckin corpse He got it by killer, preoccuppied with bein boss Revenge is the method, whenever steppin keep a weapon close Adversaries are overdosed over deadly notes Jealous niggaz and broke bitches equal packed jails Hit the block and fill your pockets makin crack sales Picture perfection pursuin paper with a passion Visions of prisons for all the pussies that I blasted Runnin with criminals individuals with no remorse Try to stop me my pistol …

Help answer the question about sales closing techniques

Find a literary technique in this passage: ?
“For a while, even cancer couldn’t keep Baba from the flea market. We made our garage sale treks on Saturdays, Baba the driver and me the navigator, and set up our displays on Sundays. Brass lamps. Baseball gloves. Ski jackets with broken zippers. Baba greeted acquaintances from the old country and I haggled with buyers over a dollar or two. Like any of it mattered. Like the day I would become an orphan wasn’t inching closer with each closing of shop.”

ANY WILL WORK…. thanks!!!

About Author

Ian Traynor has been building and running websites since
1996. His Marketing Magic website provides tons of free
advice and help on all aspects of online and offline selling
and marketing. Sign up on the site for his highly acclaimed
“Marketing Update” newsletter – and get access to his
subscribers’ free Download Library. Ian is also the
Principal of the Newbies School of Internet Marketing.

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Sales training is a great way of improving the techniques that your sales staff use to seal a deal. Salesmen tend to perpetuate the myth that training cannot be taught. They treat sales like a dark art that can only be conquered by an elite few. Although it is definitely the case that sales can suit some people more than others it is also the case that techniques can be taught to increase the proficiency of all your sales staff.

Sales training can have a great impact on your business. It will help your sales team improve their planning and organisation, improve their understanding of customer Psychology, improve the communication with customers, manage the sales process and improve their written communication. These changes will result in a fantastic improvement to the amount of sales your team achieve and will more than pay for the cost of the training.

The planning and organisation of your sales team can be improved by teaching your team to manage their time productively. Techniques can be taught that can easily be followed and result in a better focus of your sales team’s time. A course will also cover territory management. One of the most effective ways of improving sales is to improve planning and be prepared. Setting short, medium and long-term objectives will also help your team stay motivated and achieve better sales figures. A course will help sales staff to evaluate their personal image and the impact they have of prospective clients. Theories of planning and organisation can provide a great foundation on which sales staff can build success.

Knowing a little about customer psychology can go a long way to improving the quantity and quality of client acquisitions or sales. Understanding the needs, wants and desires of the customer will dramatically improve your company’s abilities to meet them and as a result you will make more sales. A sales training course can also improve the sale team’s ability to use and analyse market information and recognise customer behaviour. Once the sales people have become familiar with the behaviour of their customers they can be taught to respond appropriately to win over the customers.

Communicating effectively with customers is the most crucial aspect of making a sale. The first step to communicating with customers is to work within a structured process. Once this has been achieved techniques can be taught that develop the sales person’s ability to deliver effective questioning to identify customer needs and concerns. A course will also teach you to listen actively and effectively. This will provide you with the necessary information to influence the customer and achieve a sale. It is possible to learn how to recognise non-verbal signals from a prospective client as well as know how to behave in a way that has positive impact on the potential client. This includes the way in which to close a deal or negotiations appropriately.

Understanding the sales process at a theoretical level can benefit sales people in practice. Understanding the sales cycle, clarifying the customers’ needs and summarising special concerns will help the sales staff know how to handle customers. It is also vitally important that your sales staff know how to present the products and services effectively. They must utilise the products features and benefits as well as communicating appropriate added value. They must also be prepared to deal with objections without sounding resistant. As well as teaching all of these techniques a course can help the salesperson improve their closing technique.

Another vital aspect of the sales process that training can improve is the level of written communication that your staff produce. A course can help them produce clear, concise, customer-focused written communication. It will help them to structure proposals and quotes as well as helping them present proposals and quotes. A course will also encourage your staff to be aware of the legal implication of their written communication.

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Help answer the question about sales closing techniques

Do I need to start looking for a new job?
We have a lot of signs that we may be closing but no official word yet. Here are some of the signs:
The people who have quit have not been replaced.
Conference calls with our area managers about our low sales at least once a week, when last year we only heard from them once a month.
High shrinkage results at our physical inventory that took place in August/07.
Sales are lower than last year's sales but not by a whole lot.

At our conference calls, our area managers always say positive things and makes it sound like we're not closing. Is this just a technique they're using to make us stay and not start looking for new jobs??? I'm very concerned and want to know from a legal standpoint, how many days or months in advance must they inform us of a store closing. Our office only has 5 people working here. Any ideas?

About Author

Shaun Parker is an expert on sales training and customer service training. He shares his experience to help you.

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